[.ca] Handbook of Tropical Aquarium Fishes (ISBN 0866221387)

Full of color photos:
I liked this book because i could look up pictures of many different fish. it has a lot of general information on livebearers and egg layers. what i did not like was: 1. The information about the fish and the photos were not together. After you read something about a fish you had to look it up seperatly to find a picture of it. there was information on some fish that were not pictured and pictures of some fish with no information on them. 2. there is no fish disease section 3. they talk about plants but there are no pictures of them 4, the filters they talk about are mostly outdated... no modern type filters like wet/dry or cannister, biotypes. if you want a cheap book that explains about breeding and to use it to identify fish this is a good one. The new hybrids are not included though and there is way too much information on the origination and patent of the ______ fish \oi forgot, it was a section that i skipped\c To be honest I just use the book for pictures only so I can look up the information elsewhere like on the internet.

An extensive if not dry and boring reference book.:
If you decide you must have this book, make sure you get the 4th edition! I bought a 3rd edition from 1983 and despite its NEW condition got none of the pages of color photos that others rave about. The 3rd edition is on low quality paper, with only B & W photos, many of which are too dark to be of use. Additionally, because this book (regardless of edition) is in fact a reprint of the original published in 1955, it does contain lots of dated information regarding equipment and various aquarium set-up and maintenance practices. In my humble opinion....save your money despite the low prices for this huge book in good used condition and buy a more up to date book with full color illustrations and less "intellectual" language.

SUPERIOR BOOK ON FISH:
Despite the fact that Dr. Axelrod wrote the text over 20-25 years ago, it is an excellent source for the various aquarium topics that all aquarium keepers eventually run across and need a reference book. Information about various equipment and supplies are outdated but that information can be found in many different sources. If that is a major interest, this book will not help you. However, it does provide rich and detailed material about diseases, fish anatomy, fish behavior and requirements for aquariums. This book delivers useful and detailed information that leaves nothing to the imagination.